ComputerWorld: Will user interfaces be the downfall of Microsoft?

In his piece Michael Horowitz seems to echo many of the points I made in "Nobody Asked Me But... (What I Want in the next versions of Office and Windows) and a soon to be published piece: Microsoft to Users: You Need to “Survive” an Update. I also began this topic in the summer of 2007, with a blog post entitled "Where's the Revolution?"

Michael takes a bit of a different slant but both of us, from the end user perspective rather than from Microsoft's, see the new versions as causing much grief and frustration with little in the way of real improvement. By the way, I have no axe to grind; like many of you I am bonded with Microsoft and have no easy path to Mac or OpenSource. But we all have a stake in not continuing the madness.

Here is the beginning of his piece:

"Microsoft has made, what I think are, mistakes in changing the user interfaces on their two most important products, Windows and Office. Each is doing it's best to drive away existing customers. The techies at Microsoft seem to lack an understanding of the needs of normal people and thus may have started the company on its inevitable decline."

"Computerworld may not be the place to make this argument, as many readers, no doubt, enjoy playing with new software. But others don't. I'm speaking of the vast majority of the world whose jobs are not IT related. These people may use computers, even need them, but they view them as a tool to get their job done. Nothing more. As a consultant, I see this all the time in my clients."